The Deep Space Adventure
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: The crew of Fireball XL5 investigate the disappearance of space ships in the Kuiper Belt region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune while testing a new anti gravity engine. Astro and Reno are on board to to assist on behalf of NASA and the JSA.
1. Chapter 1

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**1.**

**Astro **and Reno sat next to each other in the front cabin of the small chartered jet. Reno leaned over to stare out of the window as the aircraft flew over the Pacific, he was trying to figure out just where they were heading. Professor Ochanomizu sat in the isle seat, he was deeply absorbed in reading a book that he'd brought along with him. Astro looked up at the professor and nudged him in the side with his elbow to get the man's attention.

"Hakase, can you tell me now just what is going on?" Astro asked.

Ochanomizu looked down at Astro and sighed. "Yes I suppose it's safe to talk now." He answered. "I'm sorry I had to be so secretive, but Commander Zero was quite insistent that our trip be kept secret. The equipment that you and Reno helped me get ready was sent on ahead to Space City so that it could be installed in one of their space ships. I'm not really sure what is going on, but I do know that both Dr. Moss of the Japanese Space Agency, and Dr. Von Wormer of NASA are going to be meeting us there. It seems that whatever is going on requires the attention of the world's three major space agencies to figure out."

"Just what is Space City, Hakase?" Astro asked. "I've never heard of it"

"Space city is the head quarters of the World Space Patrol, isn't it?" Reno asked.

"That's correct, Reno." the Professor replied. "Shortly after Astro returned from his mission to Mars many years ago with the discovery of Alien menace, it was realized that we needed to keep surveillance of the outer regions of the solar system. The World Space Patrol was established to perform that task. They also keep a lookout for space pirates in the shipping lanes between Earth, Mars, and the L5 zones."

"So where is this space city?" Astro asked.

"It's exact location has been kept secret to the extent that it isn't on any published map." The professor replied, "But it's well know that it is located somewhere in the south Pacific on a remote island." Ochanomizu looked briefly at his watch. "Actually, we should be almost there by now. In fact I think I feel our pilot beginning his descent."

"You're right Hakase." Astro replied. "My gyro senses indicate that we are on a descending path."

**The **aircraft made a slightly bouncy landing and pulled up to the Space City terminal building. Astro, Reno, and the Professor walked down the stairs to the tarmac where a bus was waiting for them. As they pulled away, the contents of the aircraft were already being unloaded onto a flatbed truck.

"I hope they don't lose my luggage." The professor moaned. "That is what always happens to me when I travel."

The bus dropped them off in the center of the Space City complex, not far from the rotating tower building. They were escorted by several uniformed men into the main complex, and took an elevator upstairs to the commander's office. Professor Ochanomizu immediately recognized Dr. Moss of the JSA, and Dr. Von Wormer from NASA.

"Hello again Astro!" Dr. Moss cried out extending his hand. "I'm very happy that you were able to help us with our little problem."

"Dr. Moss insisted that you join us." Commander Zero spoke up. "He couldn't recommend you any more highly, and briefed us on your heroics during the second Mars expedition."

Astro blushed slightly and bowed his head.

"I'm happy to see you again as well!" Dr. Von Wormer spoke up. "I've tried to bribe the Japanese Science Ministry with quite a sum to get them to lend you to us at NASA, but they keep turning me down!" He laughed.

"Well now that the reunion is over, can we get down to business?" Lieutenant Ninety asked.

"Always a bit impatient, aren't you?" Zero asked rhetorically. "Let me introduce my second in command, this gentleman in Lieutenant Ninety." Command Zero explained. "Now if everyone will take their seats I will explain what is going on."

Reno and Astro had wandered over to the windowed wall of the commander's office to look outside at the complex. The building they were in slowly rotated at a rate of about 1 RPM giving them a good view of the entire complex. "Is that the main launching pad down there?" Reno asked.

The commander looked to where Reno was pointing. Several long tracks ran off in the distance, each of them terminated with an uphill section of about 40 degrees aimed skyward. Siting on one of these tracks was a rocket sled, with a giant spacecraft sitting on top of it. The ship had a large wing section in the rear with an equally large rudder. Each section of the wing held a rocket engine, the rear of the ship had and even larger engine. The front of the ship where the cockpit was had a large transparent front section and four small fins toward the back. It was apparent that this front section could separate from the main craft, perhaps for planetary landing, leaving the bulk of the craft in orbit.

"Good eyes son." the commander replied. "That is our main XL launch complex. The ships launch like an aircraft horizontally propelled by those rocket sleds on a track. When they reach the end of the track they are going fast enough to pull up in a steep climb under their own nutomic rocket power We have over 30 of those ships in the fleet. We are currently prepping #5 for this mission."

Zero reached into his pocket and extracted a remote control pointer. He pressed a button on the device and a large flat screen monitor lowered down out of the ceiling. As soon as the screen was fully lowered it displayed a graphic showing a map of part of the outer region of the solar system. The commander used the device to point to the screen.

"This region of our system, just beyond the orbit of Neptune and extending deep into the Kuiper belt has slowly been getting the same reputation as the old Bermuda Triangle on Earth." Zero said. "We've had reports of numerous ships disappearing in this region, mostly belonging to wildcat asteroid miners in the Kuiper belt. We've lost contact with two of our patrol ships in that region and a third one is now overdue on contact. At this moment we don't know if we are dealing with a hostile alien threat, some unknown natural phenomenon such a a black hole, or something totally undefined. Part of our problem is the vast distances out there. Even with our nutomic powered rockets we are dealing with trip lengths of many months long."

"I take it that the equipment you asked me to prepare might have something to do with a solution to that problem." Professor Ochanomizu spoke up.

"Exactly." Zero replied. "A Doctor Dillon Schlemiel has been working with both NASA and the JSA for the past few years perfecting his anti-gravity engine. The WSP will be testing his invention, and if it works will will retrofit our entire fleet with them. He is currently working with the maintenance crews to install this device on patrol XL ship #5 for its first flight test. The graviton density detector that your science ministry has perfected is the missing bit of technology that Dr. Schlemiel needed to finish the control systems for his engine."

"Just how fast will this device enable a spacecraft to travel?" The Professor asked.

"In theory the ultimate velocity is unlimited." Dr. Moss answered.

"Do you mean that it is capable of super-luminal velocity?" Professor Ochanomizu asked.

"That is exactly the implication that Dr. Schlemiel has proposed." Dr. Von Wormer replied.

"We don't know what will happen to the crew of a spacecraft as it approaches and exceeds the speed of light." Commander Zero added. "We can't risk the crew passing out and loosing control of the ship, and we don't have the automated equipment to assume control of the craft in case something goes horribly wrong once the light barrier is breeched."

"That's where I come in?" Astro asked.

"Exactly!" Zero said, patting Astro on the head. "We need you on board the ship to act as the copilot to take control if the ships human pilot becomes incapacitated."

"In that case I'm coming along as well!" Reno said standing up. "I'm the only person that could repair Astro should he become damaged."

"That was the reason I brought him along as well." Dr. Ochanomizu added. "Plus Reno helped us assemble the prototype graviton density meter that you are now installing on the ship."

"Very well, Professor." Zero smiled. "In fact I had expected he was going to come along on this mission and we've made provisions for him on the ship. I should warn both of you that we have no idea what you are going to find out there. The mission will have a dual purpose, firstly to test Dr. Dillon Schlemiel's Graviton Polarity Generator Engine, and secondly, to investigate the area where all of the missing ships have been reported. It will be a dangerous task, mostly due to the many unknowns."

"I'm still up for it." Reno said, "As long as Astro is."

"Then it's a go!" Astro replied.

"Well then I think it's time that I introduce you to the crew of XL ship #5" Commander Zero replied. "Astro, Reno, and Professor Ochanomizu, if you will accompany me please."

**The** commander and his second in command led their volunteers out into the hallway and into a waiting elevator. The special lift traveled through a pneumatic tube that led from the control tower building directly to the launch complex. By pressing the correct destination button, the commander was able to direct the lift directly to the launch area where the XL ship was berthed. They exited the elevator and entered a long walkway leading through a movable tubeway that was docked against the side of the ship. Lieutenant Ninety entered a code on a keypad on the outside lock to the ship and the door slide open. An elderly man in the ships uniform greeted them at the door. He had wirely hair that sorta resembled Albert Einstein's, and wore thick glasses.

"Hello there! You must be Astro." he said. "I'm Professor Matt Matic, the ship's engineer. Welcome aboard Fireball XL5!"

"Pleased to meet you sir." Astro replied, placing his hand on Reno's shoulder. "This is my friend Reno, who will also be on this mission."

"Pleased to meet you as well!" Matt answered, "I understand you are an expert on this Graviton density instrumentation that was recently brought aboard. Robert and I are having a bit of a time trying to tie the equipment into the ship's instrumentation."

"I can help you with that." Reno answered.

"Great!" Matt answered. "Follow me."

The engineer led Astro, Reno and the professor into the ship's main computer bay where most of the navigational instrumentation equipment was located.

"Let me introduce you to Robert, my robot." Matt said. "Robert is my assistant, and he also doubles as the ship's automatic co-pilot."

"H-E-L-L-O!" Robert's synthesized voice said. The transparent skinned robot was about a head taller than Astro. He had simple claw like hands and block feet. "Robert isn't very sophisticated and his A.I. isn't as complex as your's, I'm afraid." he told Astro. "He's not much of a companion because he has no personality, but he's very devoted to his job and I depend on him."

"Pleased to meet you Robert." Astro said.

"T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U" Robert answered.

The forward door into the compartment opened and two more of XL5's crew entered.

"You're just in time Steve." Matt said. "Our two new crew members just arrived on board. Astro, Reno, let me introduce our commanding officer, Colonel Steve Zodiac, and the ship's medical officer Doctor Venus."

"Pleased to meet you both." Astro and Reno replied together." Reno stared at Venus for a few moments, he was taken back by her beauty.

"Why don't you go ahead with the Colonel and the Doctor Astro, I'll get to work with Robert and Matt."

"Sure." Astro replied. He followed the Steve and Venus toward the front of the ship.

"I'll be heading back to the complex with the commander." Professor Ochanomizu yelled as Astro disappeared though the door. He headed back to the airlock with Commander Zero and Lieutenant Ninety.

Steve led Astro through a second hatchway that led into the front section of the ship.

"This is the cockpit of Fireball XL5." Zodiac explained. "This section of the ship can detach from the main body and fly on its own. That's usually how we land on other planets, leaving the main part of the ship in orbit. There are two command chairs up front, with identical controls. Either one can be used as the pilot's station, I usually sit on the left hand side and Robert serves as my copilot when he isn't working as Matt's assistant in the engineer section."

"I guess I'll be sitting in the right seat this trip." Astro said.

"That's right." Steve answered. "Robert will be helping Matt and Reno while we are testing the new Anti-Gravity engines. Why don't you get in the right hand seat and get familiar with the ship's controls."

"Sure." Astro replied, taking his position as the co-pilot. He scanned the various instruments and controls in front of him and quickly figured most of their operation out."

"So what do you think, can you fly her?" Steve asked.

"No problem." Astro answered. "Most of her instrumentation and controls are rather standard stuff. I'll read though the ship's equipment manual before takeoff and I'll have the non standard stuff figured out quickly."

"Quick study, er?" Steve asked rhetorically. He opened a drawer under his seat and pulled out a metallic covered binder. "Here's the manual. Knock yourself out, kid."


	2. Chapter 2

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**2.**

**Dr. **Dillion Schlemiel wasn't your typical scientist – engineer type. He didn't look quite nerdy enough, wasn't absent minded or single purposed, and actually paid attention to his dress and personal hygiene. He looked more like an accountant, or perhaps a lawyer type, didn't wear thick glasses to correct extreme myopia, and was actually rather popular with the ladies. However if you found him at work deep in the engine room of a spaceship working on installing an experimental anti-gravity propulsion unit, you'd swear that was exactly where he belonged, and what he was born to do.

Professor Matic and Reno climbed through the hatchway and down the ladder into the lower level of the rear engine room. Dr. Schlemiel was sitting right behind the huge rear end of the ship's main nutomic rocket engine where he had opened up the main wiring junction box and was busy splicing in the power feed to the Graviton Polarity Generator already mounted right in back of the powerful rocket engine. Compared to the nutomic rocket, the GPG was tiny, barely the size of a refrigerator. Dillion turned around and looked up when he heard Reno and the Professor enter the engine compartment.

"How's it coming?" Matt asked.

"I've almost got the Spindizzy hooked up now." Dillion said calmly. "I'll have it ready for calibration as soon as you get that density meter interfaced to the systems."

"Robert, Matt and I have already finished that." Reno replied. "Spindizzy, WTF is that?" he asked.

"That's the nickname the guys at the WSP rocket repair depot gave to my invention after I described its theory of operation to them." Dr. Schlemiel laughed. "A bit colloquially put, but actually an accurate description of what happens at the subatomic level when the Graviton Polarity Generator is in operation. The gizmo operates by interacting with the spin vector of subatomic particles against a magnetic vector which modulates the gravitation forces."

"I still don't understand it." Matt said scratching his head, "But I've watched the videos taken of the scale models, and I believe this thing is for real. Still, the real proof is going to be what happens when we try to use it to propel Fireball XL5."

"Don't worry about that!" Dillon said. "I guarantee I will knock your socks off!"

"The thing is so small!" Reno said with a question in his voice. "Truck diesel engines are larger than that."

"Size is deceiving." Dr. Schlemiel said. "What really matters is the amount of mass that my invention is asked to react with. The larger the mass, the more effect for a given power input. This ship is massive enough to react against the Spindizzy using about as much energy as would be required to power the nutomic rockets at one third power. That's decent efficiency considering the velocity that we will be able to obtain, but it's nothing compared to the device's ultimate potential."

Now Matt was really curious. "Which is?" He asked.

"Well if you buried a Spindizzy into a fair sized asteroid with a mass of about that of a good sized city," Dillon started to brag, "you could send the thing across the galaxy at many times the speed of light powered by a bunch of flashlight batteries!"

* * *

"**There!"** Dillon remarked as he finished putting the last screw back into the hatch cover on the Spindizzy, "I'm all finished back here." The scientist-engineer slowly got back on his feet from the crouched down position he had been in for several hours. "That wasn't too good for my back." he complained. "So let's try the initial calibration, shall we?" he asked Reno.

"Is that safe?" Reno asked. "I thought we weren't going to power this thing up until we were in space?

"Good point, Reno." Dillon laughed, "but I'm not actually going to be applying any real power to the GPG at this point. I just want to verify that it's functional, and we can do that by measuring the interaction between the device and the earth's gravity when I activate it at its lowest possible idle current."

For the next half hour Reno and Dr. Schlemiel verified that the system connections were correct and that the graviton density measurements agreed with his calculations. Astro and Colonel Zodiac observed the control panel where Reno had patched in his equipment. When the ship was in space they would be controlling the GPG engine, for now they were observing Dr. Schlemiel and Reno as they checked out the panel.

"Everything looks correct" Dillon finally announced as he powered down the equipment. "We still need to go through the simulation runs some more, I want to make sure that you are certified on this equipment."

"I've been though the simulations plenty, and achieved a 99% grade on it." Steve complained. "I'm ready and you know it."

"What about the robot?" Dillon asked, looking at Astro.

"Don't worry about me." Astro replied. "I'll plug myself into the simulator computer overnight and run though the exercises a few hundred times. I'll be more than ready when we launch."

"I don't know …." Dillon replied.

"We've been over this several times, Dr. Schlemiel," Steve replied. "Base Commander Zero has refused your request to come along on this mission because of the danger."

"He's approved a kid to go!" Dillon said pointing at Reno.

"I'm no kid!" Reno yelled, "I'm over 21 years old. I know I look younger, but I'm an adult, and I volunteered."

"He's got you there." Steve said. "Your invention is too important for use to loose the inventor if something goes wrong. You've got the base supercomputers at your disposal to analyze any problems we might encounter and come up with a fix at your end. Worst case scenario if we lose XL5, you'll get it working on another ship eventually. We NEED that anti-gravity engine."

"Well if you put it THAT way..." Dillon answered, "OK. But be careful!"

"Don't worry about that." Steve answered. "I started out as a test pilot, I know the drill."

* * *

**Steve Zodiac** sat at one of the ends of the rectangular table in the ship's conference room. Seated along one of the long ends of the table were Dr. Venus, and Professor Matt Matic. Directly across from them were Astro and Reno. Located just behind the auxiliary bridge in the main section of the ship, it was here that most of the brain work of any mission might take place. The room was large enough to hold the ships normal crew complement of three or four members, plus up to four extra mission specialists that might come on board. Right behind the position where Steve was sitting a large display screen was built into the wall. It could be used as a computer display, ship view screen, an electronic white board, or in several of these modes at once. At the moment it was in teleconference mode connected back to a video intercom with Commander Zero's office in the Space City command center. Dr's Moss and Von Wormer and Professor Ochanomizu were in the commander's office, and all four of them could be seen in the view screen.

"Now that you've helped get the new engine installed and setup in XL #5," Commander Zero said, "I think it's time for a formal before takeoff mission briefing."

"Roger that." Colonel Zodiac replied. "We're all present and accounted for here. Let's get started."

"OK then," the commander replied. "As you know we've been out of contact with patrol ships XL-4 and XL-13 for nearly six months now. Their supplies must be running very low at this point, if we don't find them soon all hope for their crews will have run out. Patrol ship XL-7 was chasing after space pirates that were attacking miners in the Saturn ring system when they called in that they had received a weak signal from XL-4 and they headed out past Neptune to investigate. We lost contact with XL-7 just a few days ago."

The commanders image on the display screen faded out and was replaced by a computer generated map. The command moved a display pointer around on the screen. "Here are the last know positions of all three ships. XL-4's position is what was reported by XL-7 when they picked up her signal. As you can see we seem to have lost contact just beyond Neptune's orbit at a point where the Kuiper belt begins. At the time of the ships disappearance they were not far from the current orbital position of Pluto."

"Pluto is actually not a planet, it's really a Kuiper Belt object." Reno spoke up.

"Yes, that is the current definition by the Astronomical board of scientists," Dr. Von Wormer replied. "Some members of the Kuiper belt are large enough to be planets in their own right, but their origin and orbits do not qualify them as true planets."

"It is believed that Kuiper Belt objects were created from material left over from the initial formation of the solar system that didn't get swept clear during the sun's early T-Tara phase," Dr. Moss added.

"In any case, the Kuiper Belt has never been properly explored." The commander continued. "There are many planet sized object, and thousands much smaller whose orbits have never been properly charted. Astronomers have never had a reason to study them more closely, up until recently there hasn't been any reason to. These objects are in stable orbits and there is little danger of any of them entering the inner solar system where they could pose a hazard. However if there are space pirates or alien invaders lurking out there, the Kuiper belt makes a good hiding place."

"And that's where we come in?" Steve said.

"Exactly." Zero replied. "Your mission is to verify the operation of the Graviton Polarity Generator and to explore the Kuiper belt in the vicinity of those missing ships. You will proceed out beyond the orbit of Jupiter where you will be clear of all space traffic." The commander zoomed in the map image and pointed to a region of space just beyond Jupiter's orbit. "Here you will engage the anti-gravity engine and proceed out towards the region of the Kuiper belt where the missing ships are assumed to be. You will make sure that you can control this new engine before going beyond Neptune's orbit. We don't want to risk loosing another XL ship if we can help it."


	3. Chapter 3

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**3.**

**Astro **and Reno shared a king sized bed in the guest wing of the WSP HQ. Professor Ochanomizu slept on the couch in the other room. He was a little miffed that the WSP couldn't have given him a larger room with two beds, but he was glad to give up a nights comfort for the boy's sake. They needed their rest with the preparations for the mission and lift of the next day.

When the alarm clock rang at 0700 Astro was already awake and dressed. The Professor rolled over and fell out of the couch at the sound of the alarm clock, bumping his nose on the floor. He made his way over to the bathroom to splash some water onto his face before getting dressed. When he exited from the bathroom Astro was standing in the main room of the suite dressed in the WSP uniform he had been issued.

"Good morning Ochanomizu Hakase," Atom said.

"Good morning to you Atom." the Professor replied. "My, you look real spiffy in that uniform, although that cap could be a little larger."

"I guess so." Astro said shrugging his shoulders as he looked in the mirror. The uniform fit him perfectly, except for the cap on his head. The two pointy ends of his cowlicks almost poked through the cloth of the cap leaving bulges under its surface.

Reno appeared in the doorway of the bedroom. He yawned for several seconds before silently walking into the bathroom like a zombie, slamming the door behind him.

"Doesn't seem like he got a good night's sleep." The professor said.

"That wouldn't surprise me at all." Astro said. "He snored like an elephant trumpeting, and rolled around in his sleep all night. If I was human he would have kept me up. 'Course being a robot I really don't need sleep so he didn't bother me. I just put myself into a low power mode for a few hours."

After about ten minutes Reno emerged from the bathroom and again walked zombie like back to the bed room. He emerged five minutes later dressed in a similar uniform to the one Astro was wearing. His also fit him well, including the cap.

"Let's get some breakfast," Reno spoke up, "I'm hungry!"

"That's a good idea." The Professor answered, looking at his watch. "We were supposed to met Commander Zero and the crew of Fireball XL5 at 0745 in the base mess hall. I think we can still make it if we hurry."

Astro, Reno, and the Professor arrived at the base mess hall to find the crew of Fireball XL5 already there. "Good morning." Doctor Venus said. "We've saved a table for you and Steve has already ordered breakfast, please sit down."

Colonel Zodiac raised a cup of coffee to his lips and saluted to his guests with it. Reno and Astro sat down together at one end of the table next to Steve and Venus, Ochanomizu took a seat next to Matt.

"Where is the commander?" he asked.

"Commander Zero left me a message that he wouldn't be able to see us off personally," Colonel Zodiac answered, "He'll probably speak to us before lift off over the ships video phone, as he usually does."

A robotic waiter arrived at their table holding onto a large tray. The server was a primitive looking robot very similar to Robert, but with metallic skin as opposed to Robert's transparent plastic. The robot set cups of coffee and plates of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of Reno and the Professor, he served Astro a can of light oil. Reno did his best to suppress a giggle, but Astro saw the laughter on his friend's face.

"Thank's for the oil," Astro said reading the chemical analysis on the can, "It looks exactly like my usual, but you know I DO enjoy a bit of real food now and then."

"Hey if there is anything you want, just ask." Steve spoke up. "We were briefed on your needs prior to your arrival, but we really don't know much about your tastes."

"Yeah, I get that." Astro said. "I guess I'm not your usual robot." He stuck two fingers in his mouth and emitted a loud whistle in the direction of the server 'bot who had just started walking away. The robot turned around and looked in Astro's direction.

"I'll have a pepperoni pizza, please!" Astro yelled at him.

Reno and the professor face palmed, and Colonel Zodiac broke into laughter.

"Well, you said to ask if I wanted anything!" Astro said.

* * *

**Colonel **Zodiac and Doctor Venus took off on their jet mobiles and flew towards the rear hatch on Fireball Jr., the command module of patrol ship XL5. Professor Matt Matic was already on board, he had left the breakfast early to get his things in order on board the ship. Astro and Reno boarded the ship via the motorized walk way that connected to the hatch on the main body of the ship. As Astro entered the command module he found Steve and Robert already seated going though the pre-flight check list.

"Glad to see you made it on board Astro." Steve spoke up. "We've added a third seat to the cockpit right behind Robert for you. I'll need you to monitor the navigation and engine instruments during takeoff. Matt usually does that from his station back in the auxiliary bridge on the main body of the ship, but today he and Reno will be running thought he check list on the Spindizzy engine."

"But I thought that we weren't going to start that thing till we got beyond Jupiter." Astro said taking his seat.

"Dr. Schlemiel wanted us to power up the Graviton Polarity Generator before takeoff and leave it warming up during the flight and idle setting." Steve explained. "He said that Reno and Matt would be able to notice any problems with it early on by running some diagnostic programs before we actually commit to using it for propelling the ship."

"Makes sense." Astro agreed.

The large heads up view screen mounted above XL5's front window lit up and Commander Zero's face appeared.

"Good luck XL5." He said. "Sorry I missed your morning breakfast but I was busy with other last minute duties."

"As usual." Steve replied. "Thanks, Commander. We've just about finished our preflight checks and are ready to start the countdown."

Professor Ochanomizu's face appeared in the screen as he leaned past the Commander. "Good luck Astro! You too Reno!"

"Arigatō Hakase" Astro replied.

"Very good Steve." the commander said. "I'm turning control of your mission over to Lieutenant Ninety now. Have a safe trip!"

The screen went dark and Ninety's voice came over the intercom. "Ready to lock in countdown sequence, XL5?"

"Roger Space City control" Steve answered. "Everyone strapped in back there?"

"All set." Professor Matic answered. "I'm a go!" Reno added.

"Roger that Steve." Doctor Venus replied.

"OK, Space City control," Steve spoke into the microphone. "Lock in our countdown sequence now!"

"T-minus ten minutes!" Ninety's voice came over the intercom. A digital clock on XL5's main control panel lit up and began to count down backwards. Steve and Robert double checked all their instruments. "M-A-I-N S-Y-S-T-E-M-S C-H-E-C-K" Robert said.

"Roger that." Steve answered.

"Navigation systems on line." Astro added.

"Check!" Steve replied.

"T-minus 5 minutes!" came Ninety's voice over the intercom.

"Spindizzy boot complete!" Reno reported. "GPG idle OK" he added.

"Roger that!" Steve responded.

"T M-I-N-U S 9-0 S-E-C-O-N-D-S" Robert reported.

"Fireball XL5 you are good to go!" Ninety announced over the intercom.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" Steve read out the countdown clock.

"ZERO, fire rocket sled engines!"

The clamps holding XL5 in place on the rails released and the rocket sled engines ignited. The ship started to move, gaining speed rapidly. It roared down the tracks, zooming past the rotating control tower building where Professor Ochanomizu was watching. "Good luck Astro!" he said out loud to himself. The ship approached the end of the track just as the main engines ignited. She leaped upward, clawing her way skyward. The rocket sled fell behind as the ship cleared the end of the launch pad. Her crew felt themselves pushed backwards into their seats and the G forces mounted. Through the front view screen Astro could see the sky turn a dark violet, then an inky black as XL5 left the atmosphere and reached orbit.

**Steve **and Robert made final adjustments to the ship's orbit with the maneuvering thrusters, and Astro quickly verified that the ship was in the planed orbit. "Looks good Steve." he said.

"OK then." Steve said. "Robert, you can go back to the main ships auxiliary bridge with Matt now. Tell Reno and Matt to get ready, we'll leave orbit as soon as they have the anti gravity engine stable for our flight to the test area."

Robert got up out of the copilot's seat and headed for the door of the front cockpit. "A-U-X-I-L-I-A-R-Y C-O-N-T-R-O-L" Robert said as he left the cockpit.

Astro folded up the jump seat behind the copilot's position and took the right seat next to Steve.

"Plot us a course for Jupiter, Astro." Steve ordered.

"Computed and locked into the navigation computer." Astro quickly replied.

"Excellent!" Zodiac said.

One and a half orbits later, Reno's voice came over the intercom. "Matt and I have the Spindizzy powered up and all checked out. We can give you anti gravity drive as soon as we reach Jupiter."

"OK then," Steve answered over the intercom. "Everyone back there ready to leave orbit?"

"I'm all set." Matt replied. "My console is tied in to both the navigation computer and the graviton instrumentation."

"Everything is locked down in the medical section." Dr. Venus reported.

"I'm all set at my station next to Professor Matic." Reno answered.

"R-E-A-D-Y T-O G-O" Robert answered.

"OK Astro, take us out of orbit!" Steve said. "Let's see how you handle the controls of XL5."

Astro engaged Fireball XL5's main engine and the ship accelerated out of orbit. He locked in a direct course for Jupiter. "He we go!" Astro replied, "I'm going to sling shot us around Jupiter on a heading that will take us to Neptune."

"Sounds good." Steve answered, watching the controls. "Good job Astro, I couldn't have done better myself!"

Colonel Zodiac picked up the microphone and adjusted the radio for Space City's tracking frequency.

"Space City control, this is Fireball XL5" he said.

Lieutenant Ninety answered, "We're tracking you XL5. How's it going?"

"Just leaving earth orbit now." Steve answered. "ETA at Jupiter in 96 hours."

"Roger that, XL5" Ninety replied. "Have a safe trip and good luck with Dr. Schlemiel's engine."

Astro picked up the microphone on his station. "Space City, this is Astro." he said, "Tell Professor Ochanomizu that everything is going well so far. Reno has everything under control back in the engineering area."

"I hear you Astro," Ochanomizu replied, "And Dr's Moss and Von Wormer wish you well too. They aren't in the main control room right now, they are in the computer section running some calculations."

"Hai, Hakase!" Astro answered. "The fun starts in 96 hours!"


	4. Chapter 4

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**4.**

**The **four days spent en route to Jupiter were rather routine for the crew of Fireball XL5, and were therefore rather boring. Venus kept busy studying the various botanical specimens she kept on board the ship for research. Professor Matic had plenty of technical books in his library to keep himself busy. Steve stayed at his post in the pilot's seat reading one of several paperback western novels he never tired of re-reading. Reno spent the time re-programing Robert to play Shogi, he did such a good job of it that Matt's robot was able to beat him in 3 out of 4 matches.

Astro didn't have very much of anything to do. He lacked the ability to enjoy human cultural things such as music, literature, and art. He simply sat in the right seat of XL5's cockpit next to Zodiac and monitored the instruments. During their closest approach to the Moon, Astro reported their position to Moon base Alpha, standard protocol that Steve had him take care of. Two days into the flight, he reported in to the Mars base, again standard protocol that needed to be taken care of.

Finally, Jupiter began to appear large in the view screen. Reno and Matt double checked the instruments monitoring the Graviton Polarity Generator, and verified that the engine was ready to bring up to operational power status.

Astro took manual control of XL5, and swung the ship in a tight slingshot orbit around Jupiter, sending the ship on the desired path towards Neptune. "OK, everyone!" Astro spoke into the intercom, "It's show time!"

Steve walked though the cockpit cabin doors and took his seat in the captain's chair. He quickly scanned the instruments and saw that the ship was right on course. "Good work, Astro!" he said picking up the intercom mike. "Matt, Reno, you guys ready back there?"

"Ah Steve." Matt replied. "Just give the word and we can engage the anti gravity drive."

"R-E-A-D-Y" Robert replied over the intercom.

"I've got everything safely stowed away here." Venus replied. "Strapping myself into the flight chair now."

"OK then," Steve answered, "Let's test this thing. Giver her 25% power now!"

Reno advanced the power setting on the Spindizzy to 1/4 power. A dull hum began to drill its way though out the ship, and a gray mist clouded the view screen.

"What's happening?" Steve asked, "I can feel a vibration, and there now seems to be some kind of force field surrounding the ship, but we aren't moving any faster than before."

Reno studied the instrumentation for a few minutes. Matt looked over his shoulder. "The system is definitely powered up." Matt said.

"I think this is normal." Reno replied. "At this power level the Spindizzy is just generating a force field around the ship. There still isn't enough power being applied to react with the mass of the ship. I recommend we notch it up to 50% power."

"OK, let's try that." Steve replied.

Reno advanced the power settings on the GPG. The dull hum increased to a loud buzzing sound, and the gray mist surround the ship became opaque. The stars disappeared from view and the view screen went dark.

"I don't think this is working correctly." Steve said, "maybe we better shut it down an double check the wiring."

"No!" Astro replied looking at the console instrumentation in front of him. "Reno, advance the GPG to 80% power."

"OK!" Reno replied.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing Astro?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I think I understand this thing now." Astro replied.

The buzzing vibration smoothed out as Reno advanced the power setting. The view out the front screen returned as the force field surrounding the ship became transparent to visible light.

"We're moving Steve." Matt replied. "My navigation instruments indicated a sudden acceleration."

"I didn't feel anything." Steve said.

"Me neither," Matt added, "But we're coming up on the orbit of Uranus now!"

"What's our velocity now?" Steve asked.

Astro examined the instrumentation in front of him. "About 1/2 C and increasing!" he replied. "At this speed, we'll reach Neptune in less than an hour!"

**Reno's **voice came over the intercom. "Colonel Zodiac, please try the throttle control, I've got the Spindizzy tied into your engine control now. You can use the Aux switch to transfer control between the Nutomic rockets and the Anti Gravity engines."

"Roger that Reno." Steve replied. "Switching to Aux 1position, now."

Steve engaged the throttle control and observed the readings on the space velocity indicator. "Yes, I seem to have control of our speed now. Good work back there!"

"Coming up on Neptune now, Steve." Matt announced from his navigation position back in the main body of the ship.

"Roger that, Matt." Steve replied, "I can see the planet now in our forward view screen."

"Now what do we do?" Astro asked.

"Plot us a course beyond Pluto into the Kuiper belt." Steve said. "According to our best data, Fireball XL13 was lost somewhere between here and the region beyond Pluto. Let's try pushing the Spindizzy a bit harder while we're at it. I'd like to see if we can actually prove Einstein wrong and break the light barrier."

"Even if we do exceed the speed of light we might not actually be breaking the laws of relativity." Reno piped in over the intercom. "Since we are using anti gravity for propulsion, we may actually be bending space-time, which Einstein did allow for."

"I'll let you and Matt argue that point." Steve laughed. Give me full power on the Spindizzy, and I'll control our trajectory from here. Astro, stand by to take control if us humans should blank out."

"I'm ready." Astro replied. "Course into the Kuiper belt plotted and locked in."

"OK everyone, he we go!" Steve announced. He pushed forward on the throttle and Fireball XL5 shot forward. As their speed increased , the star-field in the forward view screen started to shift into the blue spectrum, and the pin points of stars elongated into coma like objects.

"Strange, I don't feel the acceleration." Colonel Zodiac said.

"The Graviton Polarity Generator puts out a damping field that surrounds the ship." Reno explained over the intercom. "That field is protecting us from the effects of our rapid acceleration, as well as blue shifted cosmic rays!"

As Fireball XL5 increased speed, the forward view field started to shrink. The effect was like the vignetted image formed by a narrow field lens trying to project on a wide field.

"Velocity 0.95C!" Astro read from his instruments. "0.96C, 0.98C, 0.99, 0.995!"

The forward star field shrunk down to a pinpoint. "0.999C" Astro read off the instrumentation.

BOOOOOOM! Fireball XL5 shuddered as if it had just smashed its way through a brick wall. The forward view field exploded into a burst of multicolored light that momentarily took on the appearance of an infinite number of concentric rainbows. Then they appeared to be back in normal space, as the stars ahead of them appeared normal, but the star field off to their sides was stretched into lines that looked like spectra screen through a grating.

"What's our speed now?" Steve asked.

"Warp 1.1!" Astro laughed. "We just punched a hole in the light barrier!"

Steve Zodiac opened the intercom. "Everyone back there feeling OK?" he asked. "We've just set a new WSP speed record which probably has Albert Einstein rolling over in his grave right now."

"I didn't notice a thing." Professor Matt Matic replied.

"I'm fine too." Reno replied.

"I've been monitoring everyone's vital signs remotely from the medical computer." Dr. Venus answered. "Except for a bit of an adrenaline rush nobody is showing any abnormal readings."

"Well Astro, it looks like you might be out of a job as second in command." Steve said.

"I'm glad that everyone isn't affected by the jump to light speed." Astro replied, "and I'm sure you'll fine something else for me to do around here!"

"Well the mission has hardly started yet." Steve answered. "We still have to find those missing ships. Astro, can you plot us a course for the last known position of XL4?"

"Sure Steve." Astro answered. "I've examined the telemetry data from XL7's last transmission. From that I've been able to put together a possible track for where XL7 and XL4 might have gone. XL7 had a good trace on XL4's last radio transmissions, she transmitted that along with her own position data back to Space City for a few hours before she also disappeared."

Astro punched up an image on the computer which now displayed on the main screen. "Both ships must have passed beyond Pluto's orbit and went deep into the Kuiper belt. Now notice something strange." Astro increased the magnification on the display. "I've projected XL7's speed and vectors at several points along her know track before her radio transmissions ceased. Notice something strange?"

"Yes, I see it!" Matt replied from back in the engineering section where he had been looking at the image on a remote computer monitor on his desk. "XL7 appears to have rapidly accelerated at a rate beyond what her nutomic engines could produce."

"Exactly!" Astro replied. "It almost looks like she was being pulled by some external force."

"Jumping space fish!" Steve replied. "This sounds like some alien threat to me. Someone must have laid a trap for those missing ships."

"Could be." Astro said. "And we are going to head right into it, aren't we?"

"Hopefully, we'll spot the trap before we get caught by it." Steve answered. "OK Astro, take over. As a robot, your instincts and reactions are probably more hair triggered than mine."

"Roger." Astro replied as he assumed control of XL5 from the right seat. "Course locked in, we'll follow in the same path that XL4 and XL7 did before they disappeared."

Astro engaged the Spindizzy drive and followed the course that he had locked in. They headed out past Neptune until they reached the edge of the Kuiper belt. Steve disengaged the Anti-gravity drive and switched to the Nutomic engine. "Matt, any sign on our sensors?"

"Nothing Steve." Matt replied. "I'm not picking up anything on the long range sensors."

"I don't like this." Steve replied. "It makes no sense for a ship to just disappear without any trace at all. Not debris, no ionic trails, nothing. Astro, are you sure we are on the same course that XL7 and XL4 were on?"

"If the telemetry data from XL7 and the tracking radar scans from Space City are correct, yes." Astro answered.

"I'll take over from here and fly a zigzag course at space normal speed for awhile." Steve suggested. "Astro, you and Matt operate the long range sensors and give a yell the moment you spot anything."

"OK." Astro replied "I'll go back and join Matt and Reno in engineering and monitor from there."

"OK" Steve answered.

For the next 72 hours Steve and Astro took turns in the cockpit flying a zigzag course. Reno and Matt alternated manning the sensors. There was still no sign of the missing ships, no debris, no trace of low level Nutomic exhaust from the ships engines. Astro was in the engineering section with Matt and Reno when the ship suddenly lurched forward.

"What's going on Steve?" Matt cried over the intercom, "Did you spot something?"

"No that wasn't me!" Steve replied. "XL5 seems to be out of control, we're being pulled off course and I can't break free. I don't see anything ahead of us that could be responsible for this."

Matt and Astro quickly activated the forward sensors, but they couldn't find anything on the short or long range views.

"There's nothing showing up on our sensors Steve." Matt yelled. "Whatever is responsible for this seems to be invisible!"

Reno had been adjusting the Graviton density monitor during all this. He suddenly got up and ran towards the front cockpit of XL5, with Astro quickly following him.

Steve had already swung XL5 180 degrees about and had engaged full power on the Nutomic rockets.

"It's no use." he said, "Even with full power I can't break free of whatever is pulling us."

Reno pushed Steve away from the controls. "Let me handle this!" he yelled. Reno quickly transferred control from the Nutomic engines back to the Graviton Polarity drive. He engaged full power and XL5 began to pull away from the force yanking it off course. He soon had the ship back under control.

"I should have thought of that!" Steve replied.

"You would have if you knew what was ahead of us." Reno said. "We can't see it because it neither radiates nor reflects any light. We can't detect it on our sensors because it can't be detected with electromagnetic radiation. But it does have mass, lots of it. It can be detected by observing it using a gravity wave detector."

"The graviton density detector equipment." Steve replied.

"Exactly." Reno said. "I've tied it into the ships forward view screen, take a look."

Reno switched the viewer to the output of the Graviton density detector, and the object appeared on the screen.

"My god, that thing is huge!" Steve yelled.

"Yes, it's over 3 A.U. in diameter." Reno replied, "and it has the mass of an entire solar system! Only the anti-gravity engine would have enough power to counter act that much gravity."

"So that's what was pulling us in, a huge gravitational field." Steve replied. "But what the hell is that thing?"


	5. Chapter 5

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**5.**

**Steve **Zodiac took over the controls and brought Fireball XL5 into a close orbit around the dark object. The ships searchlights provided barely enough illumination to scan the surface of the thing. Just as Reno had described, it was a sphere nearly three times the distance Earth was from the sun in diameter. They were now close enough to its surface to scan it, yet the anti-gravity engine was powerful enough to keep them from being pulled any closer to it.

"The surface of this thing is metallic, and get this, it's hollow inside!" Astro said reading the instruments. "Now that we are this close I can detect some IR radiation coming from from it. The walls of the object are a few hundred miles to a few thousand miles thick, but inside it is mostly hollow. What's incredible is just how much energy is being produced inside of the thing. We are only seeing a fraction of that in the form of IR on the outside."

"This makes no sense." Colonel Zodiac blurted out. "It can't be a natural object."

"No, it's definitely been made by a highly advanced civilization." Reno replied. "I now know what this thing is, though I never thought that I'd ever see one."

"What is it!" Astro and Steve demanded.

"Gentlemen, we are looking at a Dyson Sphere!" Reno replied. "Deep in the center of this hollow metal ball is a sun, probably a G class star, a bit larger than our own. Some advanced civilization has taken apart their solar system and used the matter to build a huge sphere to enclose their sun. Since the diameter of the sphere is about 50% larger than the Earth's orbit, we can take a good guess at the output of the sun, it must be somewhat brighter than our own so that just the right amount of energy reaches the inner surface of the sphere. I bet they also have the ability to move this sphere anywhere in the galaxy that they want."

"Why the hell would anyone want to build such a thing?" Steve asked.

"To capture the entire energy output of a star." Reno explained. "I think we should back off from this thing. Any civilization that can build a Dyson Sphere is a power to be reckoned with. If they are responsible for the disappearance of our ships, we are in great danger being this close to this object!"

**Suddenly **an opening began to appear on the surface of the sphere as what appeared to be a doorway slide aside. XL5 was enveloped in a bright beam of light and they felt themselves being pulled towards the opening.

"Matt, give me full power on the Spindizzy!" Steve yelled into the intercom as he applied full reverse throttle on the anti-gravity drive.

"It's no good!" Reno replied as he flipped dials on the graviton density meter. "We only have a fraction of the power needed to break free from them."

XL5 rotated ninety degrees and began to move nose first towards the opening in the Dysan sphere. They didn't pick up a great amount of speed, their movement into the opening was gradual, and gentle.

"Looks like they don't want to destroy us, at least not right away." Astro remarked.

The ship entered what appeared to be a long tunnel, the walls of which were smooth with hardly any texture. "I think we are passing though some kind of force field." Reno remarked, "This tunnel doesn't appear to be a physical path though the sphere, it's almost like the molecules in the outer wall have moved aside to let us pass, almost like Moses parting the red sea" he explained.

There was a light ahead of them as the neared the end of the passageway into the interior of the sphere. Suddenly, they broke through to an astounding sight. Dead ahead of them some 1.5 AU away was a class G5 star. Through his telescope, Matt could detect several minor satellites in orbit around the sun between it and the inner surface of the Dyson Sphere. The sphere itself consisted of a wide band of planetary material spinning about the suns equator, and an upper and lower hemisphere covered with solar collectors. Matt and Reno made use of the ship's scientific instruments to examine the interior of their confinement.

"It appears that the occupants of this place live along the band of land that orbits around the equator of the sun." Matt explained. "The measurement for the thickness of the sphere that Reno measured only applies to this equatorial region of the sphere. The mass, along with the rotation of the sphere would supply near earth normal gravity to anyone standing on the inner surface of that region. The upper and lower hemispheres of the sphere are much thinner and seem to serve as energy collectors to capture solar radiation. The amount of power available to this civilization would be incredible!"

Gradually, Fireball XL5 was drawn towards a region near the edge of the inhabited band near the northern hemisphere. Matt piped the telescope's image onto the ships view screen. "I think this is where they are taking us." he said.

In the view screen they saw what looked like a docking bay suspended in space several miles above the edge of the wide equatorial band. There were three other ships tied to the dock, and they could make out the markings on them. "Looks like we've found XL7, XL4 and XL13!" Matt said.

"I'll try and raise them on the radio," Steve said. "Fireball XL7, XL4, XL13. This is XL5, do any of you read me?" He spoke into the microphone.

There was no answer. Steve tried several times to raise the other XL ships, but there was only static on the radio. "Maybe, they've been removed to the surface of the sphere." Astro suggested.

"That could be." Reno replied. "I'm not getting any power readings from any of those ships. They're all dead in space at the dock."

**With **a sudden jolt that shook the ship, Fireball XL5 came to a sudden stop next to the other three XL ships. There didn't seem to be any indication of life or power aboard XL4, 7, or 13. Astro scanned the ships using XL5's sensors and picked up no signs of power radiation, or any life forms on board the ships. The view ports and windows of the ships were dark.

"Either their crews are dead, or they were taken off the ships and are being held captive." Astro said.

"I know the crew of XL7, they wouldn't have given up without a fight." Steve replied. "OK everyone, let's meet in the conference room for a council of war."

"What's happening?" Dr. Venus asked.

"It seems that we've been taken captive aboard this Dyson Sphere." Matt Matic replied. "I've been examining the interior of this place using my telescope and radar equipment, and it's fascinating. Who ever created this must be centuries, or even millennia ahead of us on earth."

"But why would such an advanced civilization take hostile action against us?" Steve asked.

"They might simply be studying us, like we might study lower life forms on earth." Reno suggested.

"Now that's a scary thought." Steve replied.

Suddenly an ear splitting howl caused Steve, Matt, Venus, and Reno to cover their ears. Astro realized what was going on even though he was not affected by the sound. A shimmering glow appeared around each of the human members of the crew, and they faded away, leaving Astro alone in XL5 with Robert!

**The **crew of Fireball XL5 materialized inside of a metal room with no windows or doors. There were numerous cots, tables and chairs. Seated in the room were the crews of the other three XL ships.

"Steve Zodiac!" Kevin Meteor said, "They got you guys too?"

"Kinda looks that way." Steve replied. "You guys OK?"

"They're treating us well enough so far, whoever or whatever they are." Maxwell Rapid replied. "We've been feed and our hygiene needs taken care of, although the food is a little on the tasteless side."

"Hey, Astro and Robot are missing!" Reno cried out. "They were in the conference room with us, but they weren't transported out of the ship."

"I guess our hosts don't think that our robots pose a threat to them." Kevin replied. "The robot we have on XL7 wasn't transported off the ship with us either."

"Unless they took the robots else where." Steve replied.

"No, when I scanned the ships I did detect the presence of a Robot on XL7." Reno answered. "He was shut down, maybe he ran out of power."

"Now what are we going to do?" Venus sighed.

"Well, if the beings that captured us think Astro isn't a threat to them, they have a surprise coming!" Reno laughed. "He'll think of something!"

* * *

**Astro **tried to grab hold of Reno's hand as he was shimmering, but the boy faded away and Astro's grip on him now held nothing but air. "Damn!" he yelled, they've transported the crew somewhere!" Astro turned around and saw that Robert was still standing behind him. "Well, Robert, I guess it's all up to us robots now. Follow me!"

Astro headed back towards Matt Matic's engineering station with Robert following him "F-O-L-L-O-W A-S-T-R-O" he repeated several times along the way. Astro sat in Matt's station and began to scan outside the ship using the various instruments. The desk rotated around facing the different monitors mounted at various positions hanging on the ceiling. "Give me a hand, Robert" Astro said, "can you do a life sign sweep for anything in the area surround this docking area?"

"S-C-A-N S-W-E-E-P" Robert said walking over to an instrument panel on the wall. The two of them kept at their tasks for several minutes, but nothing was showing up. "This Dyson Sphere is a huge place." Astro sighed out loud, "it could take me years to find them this way."

Suddenly the instruments went dark and the ship became very quiet. The power monitor registered a massive power outage throughout the ship. Robert became limp and fell over sideways, lying on the floor in front of Astro. For a moment, Astro felt like he might black out himself, but his internal backup power regulator kicked in and his momentary dizziness faded. Astro walked over to Robert and opened his front panel. He then opened his own chest panel and extracted an interface cable which he plugged into Robert. "OK pal, lets see if I can lend you some power."

Astro brought up his heads up display and was able to diagnose Robert's systems through the network cable they now shared. "I see the problem, seems they've planted a little bug in your power control firmware. Good thing I'm programmed in a different OS and I'm immune to it."

Robert came back on line and got up. "Hold on a sec Robert, I'm not done yet." Astro said. "I'm not as good a computer hacker as Reno, but your AI isn't quite as complex as mine, I think I can understand the code well enough. Now let's see..." Astro patched a few subroutines, and uploaded some of his own. "There that ought to do it."

"THANK YOU!" Robert said.

"Yeah, that did it." Astro smiled. "I think I've raised your IQ a few notches there."

"WE HAVE VISITORS!" Robert replied.

"Yeah, it seems that our hosts have beamed themselves on board." Astro said. "Let's both play dead and see if we can get the drop on them."

Astro got back into Matt's chair and slumped over on the desk. He put himself into a low power suspended mode, only keeping his sensors powered up. Robert sat down on the floor next to Astro, slumped over with his head in his lap. All of his internal LED indicators went dark.

Two beings materialized in Fireball Jr's cockpit area.

"Good, our power down of the ship seems to be successful." The first one said.

"I don't detect any emissions from any cybernetic processors on my scanner," the second one replied holding an instrument about the size of a large cell phone. "It looks like we've been able to take the two robots off line as well."

"Excellent!" the first being answered. "Are there any other Earth space ships in the area?"

"No, we've captured all of them." The second replied. "Earth hasn't yet sent any more patrol ships into the Kuiper belt."

"Good. That will give us some time to throughly examine them." The first said. "We can proceed to bring these four Earth ships into our engineering dome."

"How much longer do we have before we must leave this system?" the second being asked.

"About one hundredth of an orbit of the third planet." The first replied. "Then we must take our Sphere out of this system and return to our arm of the galaxy."


	6. Chapter 6

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**6.**

**Qxuel **and Zquel finished their inspection of Fireball XL5's main cockpit. Zquel opened the main panel in front of the pilot's station and carefully attached a small device into the system's wiring, and then closed the panel. "We will now have control over this ship when we need it." Zquel told his companion.

"Good work." Qxuel replied. "Let's go to the back of this ship and take care of the two robots."

The two beings opened the cabin door and made their way back through the main body of the patrol ship. The finally reached the engineering section where Astro and Robert were lying on the floor next to each other. The two residents of the Dyson Sphere bent over to examine Robert, he was the easier robot to inspect due to his clear skin, and he appeared to be the simpler of the two so they decided to work on him first.

Astro was still in a low power state, but his sensors alerted him to the presence of the two intruders and he opened his eyes a crack to see what was going on. Realizing that they were ignoring him at the moment to work on Robert, Astro sprung into action. He got to his feet quickly, but silently, and placed a hand on the neck of each of the two aliens and released a jolt of electricity.

Qxuel and Zquel dropped their tools and froze rigidly under the electrical discharge that Astro released though their bodies. Both of them started twitching and became paralyzed. Astro shut down the discharge and the two of them fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Robert, are you OK?" Astro asked.

"OK!" Robert replied.

"Good, help me tie these characters up!" Astro said.

Robert grabbed a spool of wire from Matt's storage closet and wrapped a few yards of the heavy gauge cable around Zquel. He then repeated the same for Qxuel. Astro inspected Robert's work and nodded. "You'd make a good cowboy, Robert. Them critters are hog tied for sure!" He said.

"HOG TIED!" Robert repeated.

"I hope I didn't hurt them too badly with that jolt." Astro said, seeing that neither one of their uninvited guests were moving. "I didn't know how much voltage to give them."

Qxuel came to first, his breathing became deeper and he opened his eyes. He saw Astro and Robert standing over him, and then discovered he had been immobilized. Zquel stirred a few minutes later and also found himself compromised.

"It seems the Earth Robots were not deactivated by our IM fields." Qxuel said.

"My instruments showed them to be rendered harmless when we came on board this ship." Zquel insisted.

"No matter. Reinforcements are on the way." Qxuel told his partner. "They've been monitoring us."

"You do realize I can understand what you are saying." Astro replied in the Alien's tongue. "My electronic brain understands several hundred Earth languages, and I have the ability to decode most forms of communication!"

"Very well, then you know you'd better just release us before you find yourself out numbered." Qxuel said, this time talking in Earth standard.

"Actually, I think you'd better tell your superiors to back off, otherwise they will find you two badly injured." Astro said. "I want to know what happened to my human companions, or I am going to get very mad, and you wouldn't like to see me get mad!"

"What do you think Zquel?" Qxuel asked.

"We still have the upper hand here." Zquel replied. "We can afford to communicate with him."

"Very well." Qxuel said. "If you release us I give you my word that we won't try to overpower you, at least not now. We will give you and your human friends a chance to explain yourselves."

"Actually, I think we are the injured party here." Astro said. "You are the ones who were hijacking our ships, in our solar system. I think you are the ones that need to explain yourselves."

"Perhaps it does seem that way to you." Qxuel agreed.

Astro handed Robert a ray gun from the arms cabinet. "Robert, keep these guys covered while I untie them. If they try anything funny, zapp them!"

"KEEP-THEM-COVERED!" Robert replied.

Astro unbound Qxuel, and then removed the wire from Zquel.

"OK then." Astro said. "I want the crew of XL5 beamed back here at once. Then we can talk."

Zquel slowly removed a device from beneath his cloak. He nervously eyed Robot who had his finger on the gun's trigger. "It's only a communications relay!" Zquel said.

Astro nodded. Four blobs of light appeared in the room with them, and gradually took on familiar forms. Steve Zodiac, Matt Matic, Dr. Venus, and Reno materialized in the engineering section.

"Welcome back." Astro smiled. "WELCOME BACK" Robert repeated.

* * *

**Robert **kept the ray gun aimed at the two aliens. Steve Zodiac stared at the two of them for a moment before saying anything. "Thank you Astro, and you too Robert. Now what exactly is going on here?"

"We seem to have caused these beings some distress by our presence here." Astro guessed. "Maybe they might be willing to explain themselves."

"We don't have very much time." Qxuel said. "We must leave this system very soon. We had originally hoped not to have been discovered, but your patrol ships wandered into the outer regions of your system and detected us, we could not risk you reporting us to your superiors."

"Is that why you captured our ships and held our crews hostage?" Steve asked.

"We had no intention of harming you." Qxuel said. "You'd have been released after we were on our way back" Zquel added.

"Something went wrong, didn't it?" Astro asked.

"Yes, it did." Qxuel answered. "In the span of time measuring three of your Earth days our sphere must leave your system. If we cannot do so things will go supercritical. Even now, it may be too late."

"I don't understand." Steve said.

Matt Matic examined the ships instruments from the console on his rotating desk. "I think I know what the problem is Steve." Matt pressed a few buttons and an image appeared on one of the large monitors. "That's the star located in the middle of this Dyson sphere." he replied. "It's a G class sun, several orders larger than our own. It's also nearly at the end of its run on the main sequence."

"Exactly, Earthman." Zquel replied. "In building this sphere, we encased our sun to trap nearly all of its radiation. However in so doing, we have limited the expansion of the solar output to one AU, in the terms of our own planets original distance from the sun. We did not allow for the expansion of the solar constant over time. The combination of our sun's normal expansion due to exhaustion of its hydrogen fuel over time, and the compression caused by containment of the solar output within this sphere as only increased the rate at which the star is now decaying."

"Normally, a G class sun will end its life in about 5 to 20 billion years." Matt explained. "Our own sun is about halfway though its own projected 10 billion year lifespan. This sun should have been a 7 billion year star, given its luminosity and mass, and it appears to be about 3/4 of the way though that cycle."

"Except for our tampering of things." Zquel sighed. "G class suns don't go nova, but ours will." Qxuel said. "And it will do it very soon."

"We didn't count on the gravitational influence of your systems own sun." Zquel explained. "Though very small at this distance, it is the tipping point of a complex reaction that we can no longer control."

"We've lost our ability to maneuver the sphere." Qxuel added. "Our engineers have been working on the problem, but its a matter of mass vs energy."

"You use the output of your sun to somehow propel the sphere?" Reno asked.

"Yes, we can collect enough of the solar wind to direct out of the sphere to act as a kind of reaction engine." Qxuel explained. "However, the solar collectors are failing as the suns energy output becomes unfocused and chaotic."

"Matt, what would happen if their sun went nova at this distance from Earth?" Steve asked.

"Nothing good." Matt answered. "It would tear our system apart."

* * *

**Reno **stood in XL5's front cockpit and stared out of the large view port. He marveled at the engineering that had gone into the Dyson sphere, and couldn't believe that its creators could have made such a blunder. Something then occurred to him, and he picked up the intercom microphone.

"Astro, could you come forward to Fireball Jr?" he asked.

In a few moments Astro walked into the front cockpit of the patrol ship. "Whats up Reno?"

"I don't understand these guys." He said. "They built this marvelous system and they can actually move it about the galaxy, but they've made such an engineering blunder. Their star is about to go nova and they can't stop it. What did they say, it was a matter of mass vs energy?"

"Yes, that is the problem, according to them." Astro said, "though I don't understand what they mean."

"I think I might have the answer, but I'll need to contact Space City command." Reno said. "I need to talk to Dr. Schlemiel."

"I'll relay that." Astro said, returning back towards the main body of the ship.

"Zquel," Astro asked, "why can't you guys move your sphere away from our system?"

"Our sun's output is no longer stable enough for us to control it," the alien replied. "We were hoping to make use of your systems sun to stabilize ours, but then we noticed that this system is inhabited. Our laws prohibit us from destroying alien life, even to save ourselves so we realized we'd have to leave. That's when we were discovered by your patrol ships."

"We should have trusted you." Qxuel said, "But we couldn't chance it. That's why we captured your ships and held the crews, we didn't want your Earth command to know about us."

"If you could move your system away from ours, would you be able to stabilize it?" Matt asked.

"No." Zquel said. "Though the danger would diminish once our sun was out of the influence of your sun's gravity. Gravity is the problem, if we could only control our sun's gravitational field, we could stabilize it."

"I heard that!" Reno said over the intercom. "Listen you guys, I need to talk to Earth command. I think I know how to fix your little problem!"

"How?" Zquel asked. "Our scientists are thousands of years ahead of you, and we don't have the answer."

"Then I guess you didn't notice what powered our ship out here." Reno said.

"Your XL ships use a rather primitive Nutronic rocket engine." Zquel said.

"Not this one!" Steve laughed. "Follow me!"

Steve Zodiac led the two aliens toward the back of the ship, into the engine room. "We do have Nutronic rocket power, that's true. But XL5 is now the test bed for this contraption." He pointed to the small refrigerator sized box behind the main nutronic rocket engine that had been tied into the ship's propulsion system.

Zquel bent down and examined the device. "What is this thing?"

Reno entered the engineering section and walked up to Zquel. "That is what our Dr. Dillion Schlemiel calls a Spindizzy." Reno said, "Though the full name is Graviton Polarity Generator."

"An anti gravity device?" Zquel said. "That isn't possible! Our scientists proved that centuries ago."

"Well in that case, I guess we have one up on you!" Reno laughed, "Because this gizmo just pushed XL5 though the light barrier"

"Superluminal velocity?" Zquel gasped. "Amazing!"

"I need to phone home." Reno said. "If I'm right, I think the spindizzy could control your sun's gravitational output an easily move this sphere away from our system. I'll need to talk to its inventor to know for sure."

Zquel and Qxuel stepped aside and seemed to talk to each other using non verbal communication. Qxuel nodded his head, and then turned towards the earthmen. "I'll contact my supervisors and instruct them to allow your ship to use its radio equipment." he said.


	7. Chapter 7

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**7.**

**Astro, **Reno, Steve Zodiac, Qxuel, and Zquel stood in the back of XL5's engine compartment. Steve activated a communications screen, and Matt Matic contacted Space City from his revolving desk in the engineering portion of the ship.

"Space City, this is Fireball XL-5." Steve spoke into the intercom.

"What the in the blazes has been going on out there?" Commander Zero asked. "You've been out of contact for over a day out there! Have you found the missing ships?"

"That we have." Steve replied. "We've made contact with an alien envoy from another part of our galaxy. They were responsible for the disappearance of our patrol ships, but it was just a misunderstanding. They need our help with an emergency that could affect us badly, so we need to assist them."

"Is Dr. Schlemiel there?" Reno asked. "I need his assistance."

"Yes he's here, and very interested in knowing how his engine tests went." Zero replied. "I'll put him on the comm."

After a few moments the face of the scientist-engineer appeared on the video screen. "My spindizzy, how'd the test go?" Dr. Schlemiel asked.

"Very well." Reno replied, "We broke the light barrier!"

"Fantastic!" Dillion replied.

"Listen, we have a problem." Reno started. "We've made contact with an alien civilization that has entered our system from another part of our galaxy. We are inside of their Dyson Sphere somewhere in the outer regions of the Kuiper belt. Their sun has become unstable and unless they can move their system away from ours it will go nova. They can't move the Sphere because tapping their sun for the power to move it will only increase the instability. Conventional rocket power is useless due to the mass of this thing."

Dr. Schlemiel's contorted his face in thought. He pulled a slide rule from his pocket and started to quickly perform some calculation. "Just how large is that thing?" He finally asked.

"The Dyson Sphere is about 1.5 to 2 AU in diameter." Steve replied. "Their sun is maybe 50% more massive than Sol." Matt added.

Dillion made a few more quick calculations on his slide rule. His face suddenly lit up. "Holly cow!" he replied. "I think this will work."

"What?" Reno asked.

"The greater the mass the Spindizzy has to work against, the greater is its efficiency." Dr. Schlemiel explained. "I expected that the greatest test of the thing would be to move an entire planet, and I'd worked out the power requirements. It could be done with the equivalent of a few tens of watts of power. Moving XL5, required much more than that, something like the output of a few locomotives."

"Could the Spindizzy move the Dyson Sphere?" Reno asked.

"If you can mount it on the outside of the sphere, somewhere on the equator where it can be influenced by the most amount of mass, yes it should work." Dillon said. "Acting upon the mass of an entire solar system? My power calculations when off the scale."

"So how much power would it take?" Steve asked, "Do we have enough?"

"You don't get it." Dillon laughed. "The theoretical efficiency gain from the anti-gravity effect on something as massive as that is crazy. You'll be lucky to control the thing."

"So how much power do we need?" Reno asked.

"About 7 microwatts!" Dr. Schlemiel replied. "Fly power!"

"That can't be!" Zquel gasped.

"Hey you guys, we'd better hurry!" Matt replied over the intercom. "I've been monitoring the output of the sun in the middle of this sphere. It's solar constant has been creeping up constantly over the last few minutes. We don't have much time before it goes nova."

"OK." Dillion said over the comm link. "You guys are going to have to remove the Spindizz from the ship and get it in position quickly. You'll need a good amount of energy to get the thing started against such a large mass, but once you get it going it won't take much. You'll need a remote computer to handle it too."

"How much power will it take to kick start it against the sphere's mass?" Steve asked.

Dr. Schlemiel quickly performed the calculations.

"About 100,000 horse power, for a few minutes, then throttle back to idle!" He said.

"Any equipment we can remove from XL5 to handle it?" Steve asked.

"I'm afraid not." Matt sighed. "We don't have a portable power source that size that we could remove quickly enough, not to mention a suitable computer."

"Yes we do." Astro said. "ME!"

* * *

**Astro **and Reno worked quickly to disconnect the Graviton Polarity Generator from XL5's engine systems. "We'll have to depressurize this compartment to open the large hull hatch so you can remove the spindizzy from the ship." Matt said, handing out some oxygen pills. "Here swallow these and you'll be able to withstand the vacuum of space once we crack the hatch."

Reno and the rest of the crew each took one of the pills, Astro being a robot didn't need to. Qxuel, and Zquel passed on the pills. "Our species has developed a sort of internal space bladder that enables us to withstand a low atmosphere environment for several of your hours." Qxuel explained.

Steve Zodiac activated the depressurization controls and the atmosphere inside of the ship was pumped down into the storage tanks. The ship's large side hatch slowly opened. "OK, I'm going to carry the spindizzy outside now." Astro said. Reno understood him despite the lack of sound in the near vacuum, he could read Astro's lips. Zquel used a kind of electronic ESP to explain to Astro exactly how to exit the sphere and where to place the GPG. Astro grabbed hold of the refrigerator sized anti-gravity engine and pushed it through the hatch. Once clear of the ship, he used his leg rockets to get away from XL5.

Qxuel followed him out and floated in the low gravity. The alien pointed to where the tunnel leading out of the sphere would open up in the wall of the Dyson Sphere. Astro headed for the opening, and soon found himself in the passageway leading out into space. Once outside the sphere he followed the markings leading toward the sphere's equator. The surface of the sphere was marked in some kind of alien writing which Astro's electronic brain quickly figured out how to translate. "According to the icons on sphere, I'm about 1000 km from the attachment point." Astro radioed back.

Zquel had donned a rocket pack and followed Astro out of the sphere. He carried with him a magnetic harness that would anchor the spindizzy to the surface of the sphere at the desired location. The two of them reached the designated point in about ten minutes. Zquel brought a set of tools with him, and together he and Astro soon had the GPG ready. "You get back inside." Astro said. "I've got to connect myself up to the spindizzy now."

Astro opened the access panel on the spindizzy and soon located the computer interface and the power cables. He opened his chest panel and connected himself to the device's network, and then plugged the heavy power cables up to his nuclear power pack.

"OK, I'm ready." Astro radioed back.

* * *

**Qxuel **shook Steve Zodia'c hand. "Thank you very much Earthman for your assistance. You'd better leave our sphere before starting your anti-gravity device. Zquel has looked at the calculations based on the information that your Dr. Schlemiel provided us. We may end up flying away from your system too fast for your ship to make it back to your planet. We've already released the crews of your other two patrol ships, they are leaving our sphere now."

"But Astro is controlling the spindizzy!" Venus said. "How will he get back to earth."

"You know," Reno answered, "I'm sure that is the last thing on his mind right now."

"If it's all the same to everyone else," Steve said, "I'd vote for remaining behind with Astro."

"Sure, why not?" Matt said. "I'm in for a bit of exploration."

"I agree" Venus added.

"Make it unanimous." Reno said. "I'm not leaving my buddy behind."

"Right then." Steve said. "XL5 will remain at the dock until you guys are clear of our system. We can then return our spindizzy to XL5 and get back to Earth."

"If it doesn't burn itself out." Reno said. "Dillon warned me that he didn't know how long it would hold up moving an entire solar system!"

**They **waited for XL4, XL7, and XL13 to get clear of the sphere before starting the countdown. Astro strapped himself onto the spindizzy attachment bracket that Zquel had provided. "OK, you can download the necessary program to my electronic brain computer now Reno." Astro said.

"Right Astro." Reno answered, establishing a wireless network connection from XL5's computer to Astro.

Qxuel and Zquel stood in Fireball XL5's front cockpit looking over Steve and Reno's shoulders. "How's your energy levels doing Astro?" Reno asked over the radio.

"I'm fine." Astro answered back.

"OK then, I'm starting the countdown." Reno replied, throwing a switch on the panel. The countdown clock on XL5's heads up display started ticking down.

"10,9,8,7,6, initializing!" Reno said.

"Roger that!" Astro said, "I can feel the power drain starting."

"5,4,3,2,1,0, energize!" Reno said.

Astro's vision narrowed into a narrow tunnel as he felt the spindizzy momentarily suck every ounce of energy from his system. He blacked out, but could feel a strange acceleration flowing though his body. On board the Dyson Sphere the atmosphere started to glow with a purple haze. The internal sun seemed to shrink in size and a sudden cold wave filled XL5's cabin.

"What's happening?" Steve asked.

"You've done it." Zquel said. "Shut down the anti-gravity drive now!"

Reno hit the red button on the control panel. Astro's electronic brain picked up the signal from XL5's control panel and powered down the GPG. Astro's vision returned to normal and he could see the edge of the Milky way. He turned his head and could barely make out the dim star that was Earth's sun, far in the distance.

"We're now at a safe distance from your sun." Qxuel said. "Central control is reporting that our sun has returned to normal, the danger is past. We can't thank you enough!"

"Astro, how are you doing buddy?" Reno asked.

"I feel kinda weak." Astro replied. "Don't think I can crawl back on my own, think you could come by and get me?"

"Hang in there." Steve replied. "XL5 is coming."

The crew of Fireball XL5 said their goodbye's to Qxuel and Zquel. Steve piloted the ship out of the Dyson Sphere over to where Astro was still attached to the side of it equator. Reno dug into the supplies he'd brought with him and found Astro's spare energy cassette. "I'm going out to get him." Reno said.

"Well then you'd better take another one of these." Venus replied, handing him an oxygen pill. "Matt and I are coming with you." Steve added. "You'll need our help to get the spindizzy back on board XL5."

While Matt and Steve worked at detaching the spindizzy from the sphere, Reno carefully disconnected Astro from the device and replaced his energy cassette. "How do you feel now, buddy?" Reno asked when it was all done.

"Almost like my old self." Astro replied. "My full strength is back, but I still feel a bit of vertigo. That spindizzy field really knocked me for a loop at that power level, and I was right on top of it!"

"Think you're up to helping us move this thing?" Steve asked.

"I'll give it a try." Astro said, grabbing hold of the spindizzy and applying a burst of leg rockets.

* * *

**About 2 **hours later the GPG was back inside XL5's engine room. Reno and Matt were running diagnostics on the spindizzy. "That burst of super power to move the Dyson Sphere doesn't seem to have done any harm to it." Reno announced. "We should be able to plot a course back to Earth without any problems."

"When can we leave?" Steve asked. "I've just raised Commander Zero on the space channel and he wants a full report ASAP."

"You can tell him we're on our way back." Matt replied. "Reno and I have just reconnected the last system. We're all ready to go."

"Where's Astro?" Steve asked.

"He and Robert are in the engineering section, sleeping!" Reno said. "They've both been powered up for days without a rest."

"Guess they deserve a nap." Venus said.

"We can handle everything." Reno replied. "Let's get going."

Just as Fireball XL5 pushed away from the sphere with thrusters the heads up monitor lit up with a transmission from inside the sphere. There was an image of Zquel, Qxuel, and a few other aliens on the two way video link. "Have a safe trip back home, Earthmen!" Qxuel said. "And thank you very much for your assistance. We're beaming a small gift aboard as our gesture of thanks!"

Somewhere in the cargo hold of the ship, an object materialized.

"Thank you guys." Steve said. "We'll examine your gift when we get back home."

Steve nodded to Reno, and the young man hit the activate button for the GPG. Once again XL5 accelerated past the light barrier and popped out of hyperspace somewhere near the orbit of Mars.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Deep Space Adventure**

**8.**

**About **a week later Fireball XL5 landed at the Space City complex. Commander Zero and Lieutenant Ninety greeted the space travelers at the landing pad. "Welcome back home, and congratulations on a mission well done!" Zero said. Suddenly, Dr. Schlemiel barged past the two high ranking officers and pushed his way into the spacecraft. He made a beeline for the engine room where Astro and Reno were busy with Matt and Robert downloading the last of the data from the mission. Dillon Schlemiel bend down and examined the Graviton Polarity Generator prototype, giving it the attention that a loving parent would to a child coming back home from summer camp.

"How did everything go?" he asked, "You've got to tell me all about it. What was it like traveling faster than light? Did you experience any space sickness?"

"Hold you questions till later, please!" Reno said. "We're all quite tired and in need of a good meal and a rest!"

"NEED-A-REST" Robert said.

Commander Zero made his way into the engine room. "You'll get your debriefing report in due time, Dr. Schlemiel. "These brave hero's have earned some R and R." he said. "That is after they have a quick debriefing session with Lieutenant Ninety and myself!"

Astro and Reno packed up the last of their personal items they had brought on board and headed down the access tube back to the main building of the Space City complex where they knew Professor Ochanomizu, Dr. Moss, and Dr. Von Wormer would be waiting for them.

* * *

**Sure** enough the three scientists were waiting for Astro and Reno in the conference room. "Welcome back Astro!" Professor Ochanomizu said. "Well done Reno. I'm very proud of you both!"

"I've read the report that you've transmitted," Dr. Moss said. "This is amazing!"

"I wish we could have examined that Dyson Sphere more closely." Dr. Von Wormer said. "Such technology! Light years ahead of us!"

"Well they had us going for a while." Steve Zodiac said, as he walked into the room. "If it hadn't been for Astro and Robert, we might still be their captives, though I don't think they ever meant us any harm."

Suddenly Astro remembered something. "Hey Steve, what about that gift the aliens beamed aboard the ship?"

"Oh yeah!" Zodiac said, scratching is chin. "We've been so occupied getting back home, I completely forgot about it."

"I'll order a contingent of guards to keep watch of that thing aboard XL5 until we can send in a scanning crew to X-ray it." Commander Zero said. "Can't take any chances, it might be some kind of Trojan horse."

"Oh come on Commander!" Matt said. "Do you think that a civilization that was grateful to us for saving their collective rear ends would give us a bobby trap?"

"We've been hoodwinked before." Zero said sternly. "I'm not taking any chances!"

"Let me examine this thing." Astro said. "My senses can detect stuff that humans would miss."

"Very well." Zero said. "But I'm going to station some tanks around the ship just in case some monster gets loose."

**Astro **walked back into the ships cargo hold. The lighting was poor so he lit his eye's searchlights. There was a large crate sitting in the far corner where it had been beamed into the ship. Astro could see that the container was not completely solid, there were numerous ventilation holes in it. "It looks like some kind of packing crate for a live animal." Astro radioed back to the Space City complex. "I think they may have sent us a pet."

"Great. That's all we need around here." Commander Zero muttered.

Astro put his hands up to his ears and turned his hearing up to 1000 times strength. "I can hear something breathing inside the crate," he said. "It seems to be asleep. Should I open the crate and take a look?"

"Roger on that." Zero radioed back. "But wait for Dr. Venus to come back on board."

"OK." Astro replied.

A few minutes later Dr. Venus entered the cargo hold. She was carrying a hypogun tranquilizer. "If the create inside the crate is dangerous, or tries to attack us I'll stun it with this." She said.

Astro nodded and started to pull the crated open. He quickly found a release lever that allowed the four sides of the container to detach. Inside the box was a cage with a sleeping animal about the size of a small chimpanzee. It had a large head with large ears, and eyes. Mostly hairless, it was clearly a biped that resembled a primate in some ways.

"Hey you stupid Lazoon, you can't go back to the ship, get back here!" Astro heard commander Zero over the intercom. Suddenly Zoonie ran into the cargo hold and stood next to Venus.

"Zoonie, what are you doing here?" Venus asked.

"Hey is that dumb pet of Dr. Venus in the ship with you?" Zero asked Astro over the radio.

"Yes commander." Astro said, "He's not causing us any trouble."

"Hello!" Zoonie yelled at the creature in the cage.

The animal stirred, and stood up. Dr. Venus had her tranquilizer gun ready, but the creature made no hostile moves. "Hello!" it yelled back to Zoonie, as it stood up.

"OH my god!" Venus face palmed. Zoonie ran over to the cage and unlocked it! He stood next to the animal, and then it was obvious. "Hey commander." Astro radioed back. "It looks like the alien's present was a Lazoon relative. I think Zoonie has a cousin!"

"Yes, commander." Venus replied. "It seems like Zoonie and the creature are already making friends."

Sure enough, the two Lazoons were sitting on the floor and grooming each other. It was now apparent that the new one was a female, and that she and Zoonie were already becoming more than just friends.

Dr. Venus turned on the video intercom. "See commander. No danger."

"NO danger!" commander Zero groaned. "It looks like we might soon have a Lazoon family here. That's all we need, a whole tribe of Lazoons running loose around here getting into everything!"

**Professor **Ochanomizu couldn't help laughing at the site of the two Lazoons chasing each other around the Space City control room, as Commander Zero pulled his hair out. Lieutenant Ninety chased after them to no avail as they got into all the equipment.

Reno had finished talking with Dr. Schlemiel, who was now quite busy examining the many pages of data that had been printed out from the computer logs aboard XL5. Astro was giving Dr. Von Wormer an earful describing his experiences with the Aliens and answering questions about the Dyson Sphere. Finally, Dr. Moss approached Ochanomizu.

"It looks like I'm booked on the same flight back to Japan as you are." the head of the JSA told the Professor.

"Yes, we have an early flight tomorrow," Ochanomizu said, "I think maybe we'd better say our goodbye's and catch some sleep."

"That's a good idea!" Dr. Moss agreed.

"It's been a pleasure working with you Astro" Steve said, shaking the boy robot's hand.

"Robert is going to miss you, I'm sure." Matt said.

"GOODBYE-FRIEND" Robert told Astro.

"Goodbye everyone!" Astro said waiving as they left the complex.

"Goodbye, Dr. Venus." Reno said. Venus gave Reno a peck on the check. "Bye, Reno" she said.

* * *

**After **their plane took off and they were on their way back to Metro City, Astro turned to the professor. "You think we'll ever get a chance to return to Space City again, Hakase?"

"Maybe." Ochanomizu said. "I know you've made a good impression on them, and so has Reno. But they seem to be a capable organization, and we have our own space fleet back home with the JSA."

"Well I'd like to visit there again." Reno said.

"Yeah, I can see you've got a crush on Dr. Venus." Astro said.

"Do not!" Reno replied.

"Do too!" Astro returned.

"Take that back!" Reno replied, with nuggies!

Dr. Ochanomizu face palmed and changed seats to sit next to Dr. Moss.

"Boys will be boys!" the JSA director sighed.

"I suppose." Professor Ochanomizu sighed. "Well I don't know about you, but it's a long flight back, I think I'll try to catch some shuteye."

"Good idea," Dr. Moss replied.

Ochanomizu turned to watch the two boys laughing. "Youth is wasted on the young!" he sighed drifting asleep.

_**The End**_


End file.
